For this in-person semester, the extrusion team is looking to narrow down its long list of variables, finding the perfect settings for our recycled filaments.
In past semesters, the extrusion team has had the hardest job of trying to control every variable at play in the remelting and extruding of recycled PLA. Through our many past attempts, we have found that our extruded filament is not as consistent as we would like it to be in order to readily print with it.
Two major areas of concern, and what the extrusion team will be focusing on this year, are getting consistency in the recycled melt (i.e. no unmelted chunks) and getting a consistent diameter of the recycled filament. Both of these heavily rely on the use of the proper melting temperature for the filament, which is what the extrusion team will be researching and performing experiments on.
The extrusion team is confident that its plan to address the ideal melting temperature for the recycled filament in a systematic manner will allow them to come to a decisive conclusion about the best protocol to use to create recycled filament with optimal properties for use in 3D printing.
This blog post was written by Brooke Chang.
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